Defense Minister Israel Katz likes to communicate in 280 characters. That might have been merely a political curiosity when he was a foreign minister who delighted in AI images and flamenco videos on X/Twitter, but in wartime, the habits of a social media politician are becoming a strategic liability.
In recent days, Katz has clashed publicly with IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir over the October 7 investigations. According to reporting in this newspaper, Katz has pushed the State Comptroller to reexamine the Turgeman committee’s report into the failures of that day and to review Zamir’s own internal probe.
Zamir, in turn, has accused the defense minister of politicizing the process and turning a vital professional inquiry into a campaign talking point.
When the political echelon and the top general fight in the press and on X/Twitter, the only winner is Hamas.
This is not the first time Katz has gone to war with the IDF’s leadership. Back in January, he was already “in open war” with former chief of staff Herzi Halevi over the handling of October 7 issues, as The Jerusalem Post’s Yonah Jeremy Bob reported.
Instead of quietly coordinating with the generals and presenting a united front to the public, the defense minister chose to brief, to leak, and to posture. That pattern has now repeated itself with Zamir.
It fits a longer pattern. When Katz was appointed defense minister in late 2024, this paper’s explainer reminded readers that, as foreign minister, he had become “known for posting AI photos to his X/Twitter account,” including images targeting Iran’s leaders. During Operation Rising Lion, Post senior editor David Brinn quipped, “Is Defense Minister Israel Katz good for anything? He was harmless enough when he was posting mildly offensive memes about the Houthis…” It was meant as dark humor, but it also captured a reality: a minister more comfortable crafting a viral post than managing a complex security system.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly frustrated with ministers who spend their days campaigning on social media while the war carries on. Analysis in these pages has already warned that “the elections are already in the air, the campaigning has begun” as politicians jostle for position instead of focusing on governance.
The stakes are far greater than one man’s online brand. The Post’s Bob has argued that Israel now needs a full state inquiry into October 7, precisely because neither the IDF nor the politicians can credibly investigate themselves.
Public trust in the government's investigation process erodes
When the defense minister pressures the comptroller to revisit specific findings that hurt him politically, while the chief of staff defends his own internal process, public trust in any investigation erodes further. Families of the murdered and the hostages do not care whose tweet “wins.” They want answers, accountability, and lessons learned, so that their tragedy is never repeated.
Katz also weakens the very case he claims to want to make. If his concern is that the IDF is protecting itself, or failing to ask hard questions about pre-war doctrine, he could, and should, be the adult in the room who quietly insists on a tougher, more honest review. Instead, he has turned a serious dispute into yet another personality drama at the top of Israel’s wartime leadership. As the Post’s Herb Keinon wrote of the Katz-Zamir saga, this is “yet another clash at the top” at the precise moment when “Israel’s leadership must get its act together.”
The defense minister does not have to agree with every line of the Turgeman report or with Zamir’s decisions. He is entitled, even obligated, to ask questions. But he must do so in a way that strengthens the IDF, not a future Likud primary. That means fewer late-night posts, fewer public rebukes of the chief of staff, and more hours in closed rooms, working through disagreements professionally.
In the coming weeks, Israel will likely face more decisions about Lebanon, Gaza, and Iran. These choices will demand a defense minister who listens more than he tweets, who backs his generals in public, even when he challenges them in private, and who understands that leadership in wartime is measured in results on the battlefield, not engagement on X.
For years, Israel tolerated Katz the meme-maker. In 2025, with soldiers on the front lines and our enemies watching every sign of division, it can no longer afford a defense minister whose primary battlefield is his phone.